Swaptree raises $6 million

Startup looking to help you trade items like CD's, DVD's, books and video games

Swaptree, an online swap-meet, has raised $6 million in funding.  The Boston-based startup also announced it's named Jeff Bennet as its new CEO.

The funding was led by Safeguard Scientifics, with participation from several other private investors.  With this round, Swaptree has raised a total of $11.95 million.  

So what's the service exactly?  It's basically a free platform for letting you swap items like books, music, movies and video games.  The company said that in 2009, its users conducted more than one million swaps on the site, saving a total of $5.5 million.  It also emphasizes it's a green solution saying it helped members reduce their "carbon footprint by 5,011,078 pounds in total."  Media has been calling Swaptree "the eBay of Swap."  

As for Bennet, he most recently comes formerly as the founder of NameMedia.  Before that he was the Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Lycos.

Swaptree may be free, but it does have a revenue generating model.  The company makes money by letting its customers buy and print shipping labels directly from the site.  It said it has a deal with US Post Office which lets it gain a small profit from the labels its users produce.  

Investor Erik B. Rasmussen from Safeguard Scientifics said, "“There is a highly visible swap movement sweeping the globe. Providing this additional round of growth capital will augment Swaptree.com’s ability to accelerate and capitalize on this trend while enabling consumers to save money and protect the environment.”

The company said it would use the capital for new hires and marketing initiatives.